Alright first of all, the blog with some of our photographs from class is coming. We had some technical difficulties. And also, I’ll update you on my classes soon as well. I’ve had some complaints, so I don’t want to leave y’all hanging and in the dark. :)
Okay, so we have definitely had a busy weekend! It all started last Thursday when we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is absolutely gorgeous. All the detail on the ceilings with gold leafing is breathtaking. Of course we had to walk to the top. There are three different stopping points, but in all you climb about 530 stairs. The 90 steps to our flat we walk multiple times a day definitely helped with that! The view from up there was amazing and we just took in all of London from above.
About the time we came to London, I looked up which movies may be premiering here. And there were quite a few. We didn’t try to tackle Eclipse (and the main 3 weren’t here), but we decided to go to the next one. So Thursday afternoon we met our other flat mates at Leicester Square. It was the premier for the movie Inception. There weren’t as many people as we thought, but still a good amount. We were the second row of people behind the barricade from the main area. Now, some of our flat mates weren’t too optimistic about us seeing anyone, but I kept up the faith. All the silver sedans started pulling up, but we couldn’t see who was getting out. Before we knew it, here came someone down the row of people. And it was… LEONARDO DICAPRIO!!! Ahhhh! We were quite excited to say the least. We also saw Ellen Page and a few other up and coming actors that are in the movie. Needless to say, it was a great experience and we will for sure try and go again. That night we went and ate dinner at the Texas Embassy so we could try and fix our Mexican food craving. It was pretty good, but not as good as back home. We also had to go for all of our Texan friends; we were sure to take a picture of them out front throwin’ up the Hook ‘Em sign!
On Friday, Ashlyn and I got up early and got on a train to Stratford upon Avon. For those of you who don’t know, this is where Shakespeare was born, lived a good part of his life, and died. It is a cute town, but you can tell it runs off tourism now. Ashlyn said it reminds her of a British version of St. Augustine (and I agree). So we started by going to his birthplace which was really interesting. In the garden out back, they have planted all the flowers that Shakespeare mentions in his plays. From there we went to another site of a house where they are actually digging up the foundations. And then we went to his daughter and son-in-laws house. He was the town doctor, so they were pretty wealthy. We were told that most family homes were only one big room and they had a house with at least 8 rooms. We then spent the rest of the day just looking around the town, reading for a few minutes in a bookstore, and then eating dinner at one of the oldest restaurants. It was a very fun town to visit and I know Ashlyn loved seeing where the great playwright spent so much of his life.
The birthplace
We took another day trip on the train on Saturday with our friends Shauna, Ellie, and Alex. We first went to Windsor Castle. It was very cool because the Queen was actually there for the weekend. Sadly, no spottings.. Windsor is beautiful and we loved seeing all the ornate rooms and decorations. We then took the train to Hampton Court which is the Palace that Henry VIII built. The gardens were so beautiful and the outside was as well. As grand as the Royal Residences are, it is interesting to see the difference between one that is lived in (Windsor) and one that is not (HC). We did learn a lot of history that took place here, but there was just a little bit of a different feel. Regardless, we had a great time visiting these places.
Windsor
Hampton Court
As you can tell, we had a very busy weekend. On Sunday we went to Camden Market for a little while to look around and then walked a little through Regent’s Park. We took it easy the rest of Sunday and then went to a pub just down the road to watch the World Cup. Let’s just say there were a lot of excited Spain fans on the streets that night!
The last thing I will tell you is that we went and saw Les Miserables last night. It was absolutely amazing. I had never seen it, but new quite a few of the songs. The music is incredible and they have a great set design. It is just an incredible story. Nick Jonas has actually been in it for a couple weeks and he did very well. Right before the show started, a few guys walked in the doors and all these girls started screaming. The guys were about 3 rows ahead of us, but we didn’t know who they were. Come to find out, it is the lead singer of a major British boy band. Apparently they are supposed to become world famous, so if you want to listen to their stuff early, they’re called JLS. :) But again, aside from the screaming teenage girls, Les Mis was a wonderful experience!
Sorry this was such a long post, but I had a lot to catch you up on! We go to Oxford and the Costswalds tomorrow and we are leaving for Scotland on Thursday, so if we don’t post again before then, we’ll update you when we’re back. If you watch the British Open, look for us on Saturday!
We miss you all!
Sarah
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